The erythrocytes magnetized technology (E.M.® Technology) is a great innovation in the field of blood banking. The tests can be performed manually on a Freelys® Nano workstation or on the fully-automated system QWALYS® (Diagast, Loos, France). This method does not require centrifugation steps thanks to the use of magnetic red blood cells and a magnetic plate. For blood grouping and Rh/K phenotyping, the microplate contains monoclonal IgM antibodies. The wells of the microplate to perform antibody screening and cross-matching are coated with murine monoclonal anti-human globulin: anti-IgG for antibody screening and anti-IgG + anti-IgM for cross-matching. The E.M.® Technology is only able to detect IgG antibodies. A high-density medium layer avoids the necessity of rinsing before the antiglobulin reagent. To evaluate the performance of E.M.® Technology on a Freelys® Nano work station for blood grouping, Rh/K phenotyping, antibody screening and cross-matching, we selected samples from patients, blood donors, blood cords, red blood cells from patients with positive direct antiglobulin test (DAT) and red blood cells from storage blood bags. In parallel, the tests were performed using the gel-technique (Diamed and Grifols). The concordance between E.M.® Technology and gel-test was 100% for blood grouping and Rh/K phenotyping, 94.6% for antibody screening and 92.3% for cross-matching. The sensitivity to detect IgG antibodies was 95.5% in both methods. The E.M.® Technology on a Freelys® Nano workstation provided good results in all the tests performed.
Erythrocytes magnetized (E.M.® Technology); immunohematology tests; hemagglutination in solid phase; antibody screening and cross-matching
